Prescription Drugs

FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT PRESCRIPTION DRUGS - PAGE 5

FOR ALL THE right reasons, state lawmakers may take some unwise steps. They want to help seniors who are too poor to buy prescription drugs. But in doing so, they may be hurting Maryland druggists and committing the state to a program of immense proportions. Senators and delegates are trying to cobble together a bill that would help Medicare recipients, and those not quite poor enough to qualify for Medicare, obtain prescription drugs. A reluctant Gov. Parris N. Glendening put $6.5 million in his budget for this purpose.

WASHINGTON - Riding a wave of success on his prescription-drug plan, Vice President Al Gore plans to dedicate all this next week to a cross-country discussion of health care issues and a comparison of his proposals with those of Gov. George W. Bush. Gore's advisers, who outlined the strategy in a conference call yesterday morning, said that prescription drugs had emerged as the "top issue," and that Gore had surged in the polls in part because he had dedicated so much time to the issue.

WASHINGTON -- Deficiencies in the Food and Drug Administration's system of approving and monitoring over-the-counter drugs have left it with little data on the number and types of adverse reactions and virtually no system of obtaining any, according to a General Accounting Office study.The report, to be released today by a subcommittee of the House Small Business Committee, noted that some over-the-counter drugs were known to cause serious problems under some conditions. For example, aspirin can cause internal bleeding.

WASHINGTON -- Leaders of a Senate panel are calling for more federal regulation of drug prices, citing a report that claimed the pharmaceutical industry had increased prices for the most frequently used prescription drugs last year by as much as five times the rate of inflation."

WHY DO DRUG companies spend billions on direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs when it's the doctors, not the patients, who write the prescriptions? An unconventional study published yesterday in The Journal of the American Medical Association gives a pretty clear answer. Researchers coached actors to visit doctors' offices with symptoms of specific mental health disorders. The pretend patients who asked for an antidepressant were far more likely to be diagnosed with a mental illness.

Rite Aid Corp. has sued a Baltimore company that directed thousands of people its way for prescription drugs, saying the company didn't pay the full bill after Rite Aid served its clients at a discount price.According to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, Prescription Drugs Inc. failed to pay $929,756 for drugs sold by Rite Aid in Maryland since 1988. It said the company owner, William E. Allen, did not respond to letters and calls from Rite Aid demanding payment, and Rite Aid terminated its agreement to supply drugs to PDI clients in June.

National health care spending increased 3.7 percent to $2.8 trillion in 2012, continuing a four-year trend of slow growth, according to new federal data. Spending on health grew more slowly than gross domestic product, pushing the share of the economy devoted to health care down from 17.3 percent in 2011 to 17.2 percent last year, according to analysis by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released in the January issue of Health Affairs. The declines reflect the continued impact of the past recession and reduction in Medicare payments to skilled nuring facilities.

Marylanders spent $44.5 billion on personal health care in 2010 as costs in the state continued to outpace the nation, according to a new report. Spending on services including hospital care, prescription drugs and long-term care increased 3.5 percent compared to 2009, according to the report by The Maryland Health Care Commission. On average a Maryland resident spent $7,698 on healthcare in 2010, 9 percent higher than the national average of $7,066. The biggest chunk of money in Maryland was spent on hospital care, which accounted for one-third of spending.

Prices of the 20 most popular prescription drugs jumped 80 percent on average from 1984 to 1991, four times the general inflation rate for the period, according to a report that accuses drug companies of profiteering."

BOSTON - Think of this as old news. After all, the demographic has matured along with Dan, Tom and Peter. Advertisers now target an audience that has aged from Pop-Tarts to Vioxx, from the yellow submarine to the little purple pill. Yet sometimes even a senior media has its moment. Consider health-care coverage. Nightly news reports on the patients' bill of rights have been interrupted by words from a sponsor about heartburn and Nexium. Background pieces on rising health-care costs have been punctuated by pitches about aches, pains and Celebrex.